AC: Meteors are particles of dust or rock
passing through the Earth's atmosphere. The source can be either
comets or asteroids and meteors can be seen at any time. However,
there are many meteor streams which return at predictable times.
These meteors come from comets.

Basically, as a comet orbits the Sun the nucleus gets
heated and gas and dust flow outwards from the nucleus. The dust
will flow behind the comet in a similar orbit. The dust that
flows outwards can stay in orbit around the Sun in an orbit
similar to the comet for hundreds of years. When the orbit of the
dust intersects with Earth's orbit and the Earth is at the
intersection point, the dust enters the Earth's atmosphere and
the dust gets burned up. Essentially none of the material
survives the entry to reach the group.

The Orionid meteor shower represents the intersection of
the orbit of Comet Halley's debris with the Earth's
atmosphere.

AC: The Perseid shower tends to have more
meteors per hour and the meteors are brighter. For the Orionids,
we expect around 25 meteors an hour appearing to come from the
constellation Orion (Hence the name — they enter the atmosphere
from a direction on the sky toward Orion).

BI: What is special about the Orionid shower?

AC: Because comet Halley orbits the Sun in the
opposite direction as the Earth, the Orionid meteors enter the
atmosphere relatively fast. Thus, they are seen to "explode"
(really fall apart) more often than other meteor showers.

BI: What's the best way to view the meteor
shower?

AC: The best way to look is to find a dark sky
and look after midnight. Face towards the constellation Orion.
Get comfortable (a lounge chair you can lean back in is good). Do
not use a telescope or binoculars as you don't need them and you
could not see a wide enough piece of the sky with those tools.

BI: What will I see when I look at the sky?

AC: What an observer will see will be
streaks of light appearing to originate near the constellation
Orion. They will be different brightnesses and some might
brighten near the end of their trail. They will be seen for
seconds only.

If you snap any great pictures of the meteor shower, feel
free to send them to dspector@businessinsider.com and we'll
publish them here.